These ghastly mechanisms were once perfectly legal, and were freely used by powerful governments, armies, and religious institutions to punish, kill, interrogate, humiliate, and maim our less-fortunate ancestors. Over Forty Shocking Exhibits describing implements of suffering used in nearly every corner of the globe. Were these harsh techniques of "Justice" too extreme?

Spanish "Garrotte"

AMAZING DISPLAYS of the DARKEST CHAPTERS of HUMAN HISTORY!

The Cucking (Dunking) Stool

The cucking-stool or Stool of Repentance, is of very ancient date, and was used by the Saxons, who called it the scealding or scolding stool. It is mentioned in Domesday Book as in use at Chester, being called cathedra stercoris.

The term cucking-stool is known to have been in use from about 1215. It means literally "defecation chair", as its name is derived from the old verb cukken which means "to defecate", rather than, as popularly believed, from the word cuckold. Commodes or chamber pots were often used as cucking-stools, hence the name.

The cucking-stool could be used for both sexes - indeed, unruly married couples were occasionally bound back-to-back and ducked (dunked). The device was most commonly used for the punishment of dishonest brewers and bakers. Its use in the case of scolding women declined on the introduction in the middle of the 16th century of the Scold's Bridle, although the cucking-stool appears to have still been in use as late as the mid-18th century, with Poor Robin's Almanack of 1746 observing: